LMFM Meath Minor Football League Division 3 Round 1
Duleek/Bellewstown 4-04 Seneschalstown 0-13
On a night when the temperature gauge barely rose above the freezing point the minor footballers of Duleek/Bellewstown and Seneschalstown got their League campaign underway. Quite why the League now commences so early in the year when pitches are at far from optimum condition is anybody’s guess but it certainly wasn’t conducive to free flowing football as both sides struggled to get to grips with a pitch that was rather sticky underfoot.
LMFM Meath Minor Football League Division 3 Round 1
Duleek/Bellewstown 4-04 Seneschalstown 0-13
On a night when the temperature gauge barely rose above the freezing point the minor footballers of Duleek/Bellewstown and Seneschalstown got their League campaign underway. Quite why the League now commences so early in the year when pitches are at far from optimum condition is anybody’s guess but it certainly wasn’t conducive to free flowing football as both sides struggled to get to grips with a pitch that was rather sticky underfoot.
Nonetheless neither side can be faulted for the graft which they put in over the hour as each player who took to the field of play gave their all. Seneschalstown though will have plenty of regrets over what they will regard as two points dropped as during the game they missed numerous opportunities while mistakes in defence allowed Duleek/Bellewstown in for some rather easy scores.
Like they had done in the 2014 U-17 Division 4 Final Seneschalstown found themselves eight points in arrears during this match but while they valiantly clawed back the deficit point by point, with Dylan Doyle proving particularly adept at kicking frees off the ground their ongoing battle against the scoreboard and clock eventually proved too much as referee Patrick Nelis sounded the full time whistle with three points still separating the sides.
The opening exchanges of the game set the tone for how the match was to ultimately unfold as the home side opened up a four point to no score lead inside the opening ten minutes. Their first score came when they took full advantage of an error in the Seneschalstown defence with a forward reacting quickest to a loose ball to send the ball arcing into the top corner of the goal. They quickly added to this goal with a point from play before Doyle opened his sides account when his rasping effort clipped the crossbar before going over. In truth while the score was welcomed it could have been more as the full forward would generally hit the back of the net from such a position.
Ruairí O’Dowd was next to point after corner back Robert Littler, operating in an advanced position as he followed the sweeper upfield broke a kickout into his path before O’Dowd sent a fine shot over the blackspot. The margin between the sides was soon down to a point when Eoin Finnegan clipped over a close range free. The path back to parity was soon to get steeper when Duleek/Bellewstown once more hit a goal and a point to extend their lead to five points. Finnegan responded in the twenty first minute with a point from play after capitalising on an accurate twenty five yard foot pass from Niall Hickey before on the stroke of half time Hickey’s midfield partner Adam Carey after picking up a breaking ball in midfield showed his opponents a clean pair of heels to race forward and point right footed to leave just the three points between the sides at the interval, 2-02 to 0-05.
Just as they had done in the opening minutes of the first half Duleek/Bellewstown were the first to score upon the resumption when they netted their third goal of the game. After the initial shot had struck the crossbar they managed to scramble home the rebound. As they had done in the first half Seneschalstown set about attempting to reduce the difference between the sides on the scoreboard and knuckled down to the task at hand with Doyle converting two frees and Finnegan another.
These score were soon to be wiped out as Seneschalstown conceded a goal and two points in the space of five minutes, the goal coming from a penalty after goalkeeper Ruairí McDonagh was adjudged to have committed a foul as he came off his line to try to clear the ball. Now trailing by eight points with just twelve minutes remaining on the clock the path in front of the boys in blue suddenly began to resemble a mountain. Nonetheless this team has proved its character time and time again and bit by bit they chipped away at the deficit to gradually narrow the difference between the teams.
Doyle tagged on another free before his forty five attempt was palmed over the bar by the Duleek/Bellewstown goalkeeper who had conceded the forty five when expertly saving a Finnegan attempt on goal. Doyle then added another free, this one as he attempted to goal with an exocet of a shot after a free had been brought in front of the goal following a reaction to the awarding of the free. Either side of this Doyle effort Finnegan added two more points to his account, the second of these from a free before their spirited comeback was brought to an agonising halt courtesy of referee Nelis’ full time whistle.
On a night when twelve attempts for points went a begging and the defence coughed up some uncharacteristically soft goals Seneschalstown will view this as two points dropped but no doubt will come on for this game and will look to chalk up their first victory of the season when welcoming Ratoath to Fr. Tully Park next Saturday afternoon in Round 2. Three players who stood out for them this evening were Louis Healy, Doyle and Finnegan.
Seneschalstown Scorers: Dylan Doyle 0-06 (0-04 Frees, 0-01 ’45), Eoin Finnegan 0-05 (0-03 Frees), Ryan O’Dowd 0-01, Adam Carey 0-01.
Seneschalstown: Ruairí McDonagh, Eoin O’Reilly, Louis Healy, Robert Littler, Richard McKeown, Conor Cantwell, Brian Maguire, Adam Carey, Niall Hickey, Shane Mulvany, Eoin Finnegan, Robert Wogan, David Gordon, Dylan Doyle, Ryan O’Dowd.
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Jason Kearney for D. Gordon, Cathal Finnegan for S. Mulvany, Eoin Traynor for R. Littler.
